Henry Aldridge Yr 5

The Chalk Institute Chalk extraction to produce concrete has scattered quarries throughout the landscape, many of which are simply left as empty pits. The unique geology of chalk means that these sites have incredible ecological potential, but this is rarely capitalised upon.

The project uses waste concrete to work into these quarries, and in doing so study and intervene into their ecology. In this, it becomes a reversal of the extraction which produced the quarries, creating a cycle of material flows. These materials are used to grow stone through
a process which is understood through study of speleothems: cave formations such as stalactites and stalagmites.

These studies inform a system that allows for the proposal of The Chalk Institute, an organisation that serves to research ecologies and hydrologies of chalk to better restore quarries. Stone grows over the building over time, gradually forming new spaces to increase the capacity as research generates new physical interventions. Over time, this system can be used to intervene in quarries beyond the project’s Kent site, acting throughout England into Yorkshire and across the Channel into France. The climactically responsive nature of the grown stone means that, made of chalk and concrete runoff, the building becomes a history of the site, reflecting both its history in extraction and its future growth.

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